Theory of evolution
Evolution is the accepted scientific fact that a living organism will pass inheritable traits that are different from those of previous generations to its offspring, and that such traits can become increasingly prevalent or die out based on the fitness of their carriers to reproduce, to the point that after many generations the traits can become so different that an entirely distinct species is formed. In other words, evolution is the fact that random inheritable mutations, changing some traits in the organisms inheriting such mutations, will thrive or perish in the population based on Natural selection and other selective pressures, to the point where speciation occurs. It is observable, empirical fact that this can, does, and will happen. Adaptation and survival evolution]] Evolution is all about adaptation; the animal or plant that can adapt to its environmental surroundings is the one who will survive, at the end. All animals have their unique way of surviving, for example: a bird avoids the danger of bigger, stronger and very hungry animals on the ground (like wolves, foxes, humans etc.) by flying. A wolf survives by hunting in large numbers- packs, to take down much more massive animals like bison, and taking it down with their sharp teeth, backed up by strong jaw muscles. Humans are pack animals too, we cannot survive without each other. Humans have much, much bigger chances of survival in big tribes and are very social creatures. We have evolved to use our highly developed intelligence for survival. The animals ability to adapt to different climates and environments by maintaining its physical health and stability is called Homeostasis. Without it, cells wouldn't have been able to evolve into animals because they would not be able to adapt to their surroundings. Evolution is true like gravity Evolution - The 'Best' Counter Arguments Scientists sometimes like to point out that there's no such thing as a fact in science, in reality evolution is as much a fact as the "Theory" of Gravity. This fact is a central component of the scientific theory of evolution that describes the random changes magnified through selective pressures that have caused the diversity of life that is seen today, with all species descending from common ancestors to the very first living organisms on Earth that appeared at least 3.5 billion years ago. Evolutionary fact has been proved, but the overarching Theory of Evolution is not something that can be proved in general (an important part of scientific epistemology that applies to all theories), but many testable statements are formulated from the theory (including evolution itself, which has been proven and is continuously re-proven), while other statements have likewise been disproven, both cases serving to increase the scope of the theory. The truth of the theory, as can be applied in the real world, is in its ability to make predictions and explain anomalies, for which it has an exceptionally sound record in the research literature. As cannot be over-emphasized, evolution itself, as well as various related facts, have been proven repeatedly in laboratory conditions, often today as simply part of the preliminary trials to a biology experiment. It is undisputed among serious researchers. The Theory of Evolution as it pertains to the origin of species has overwhelming support through fossil and geological records and is generally also undisputed, but it would not be epistemologically correct to claim it is fact. However, the sheer weight of the evidence support evolutionary origins is a fact which conservatives nearly always deny or overlook, and this lack of common sense leads to either a perception of "controversy" or an overwhelming selective pressure to keep them away from our smart-people gene pool. Incidentally Theistic evolution is compatible with religion but the suffering and death involved cannot be reconciled with the Problem of Evil. History Charles Darwin in the 19th Century formulated the concept of speciation induced by Natural Selection, leading to the proposal of the Theory of Evolution as an explanation for current, past, and future biodiversity. All this would be fine if he didn't insist on educating non-scientists about it, hoping to further the place of science in the world (honestly he should have kept all the science to himself and his friends so that the common people get no science and have to live off of scraps of superstition). His claim that humans, subject to the same evolutionary origins and pressures, are close cousins of modern primates and together descended from a common ancestor only several million years ago. Because conservatives, then and now, have a severe inferiority complex in which they have to be "special", not among their own species in a way that requires work or talent, but rather as a species as a whole, and as a planet. So they get pretty pissy when people go out saying that the Earth is not the center of the universe and that humans are basically smarter bipedal apes, and downright looney when people go out saying they can prove it. At the time of Darwin's original theory, however, he had very little he could prove. Fossil evidence of early hominids was lacking at the time due to the virtual nonexistence of paleoanthropology, but more importantly Darwin had no known modus operandi – there was no known machinery for how traits were encoded and passed to offspring, and no method known of changing that code or those traits. However, the importance of formulating the theory was that there was now a solid groundwork for the pursuit of naturalist rigor in biology. Despite this, the enthusiasm and general appeal in the scientific community around Darwin's theory became near-universal praise and acceptance by the beginning of the 20th Century. During the 20th Century, cell theory, DNA and genetics, and radiation-induced mutations, were found and formulated into the growing theory. The theory, in turn, was strengthened through an ever-increasing amount of successful scientific inquiry inspired by its concepts. Fossil Ape men were found, many Australopithecines are now known as are earlier humans, notably Neanderthal man and Homo erectus. Criticism and Controversy Evolution has been challenged in recent times by conservatives, who criticize it for disagreeing with their 2000-year-old book of fairy tales. Though these stories are a best-seller, they cannot disprove anything like evolution. They have made many attempts to discredit it, from dressing up normal conservatives in lab coats and having them proclaim evolution to be a falsity—even going so far as making them suck in their beer gut—to trying to cover their fictional characters in the trappings of a scientific theory and pushing it as such, in the form of creationism. All of these have had no effect on mature, intelligent people, who know better than to believe something which goes against so much real evidence. For example, people who believe in Creationism have to say that the designer deliberately made chimpanzee DNA and human DNA 99.9% identical, probably to deceive us. It proves the fanatical idea of Intelligent Design to be exactly that: fanatical. The evidence either says humans evolved, or the designer is a liar and is not good. 21st Century Neocons seems to understand less than even people far below Darwin's intelligence understood in the 19th Century. Since Evolution is true its important to bring it up every 7 minutes with Creationists because then you can watch them say stupid things like: "Before the flood water was pure," and "Why are you an atheist? Is that because you don't want to be held accountable?" Changing theory The evolution theory in place right now has been changing and will change with new discoveries. It’s really hard to test and observed evolution in the process because we have rarely tested or observed a species evolving into a brand new species. (Rarely macroevolution can happen sufficiently fast so scientists can observe it. Macroevolution or microevolution has for example been observed in a type of earthworm which has adapted to living in heavily polluted soils, in this case the evolutionary changes appear sufficient to cause the emergence of a new species. Earthworms show evolution in action This is yet another case where evolution has been scientifically demonstrated over a relatively short period of time.) We have observed adaptations of the same type of animal giving rise to capabilities it will not have in other environments. We based evolution on adaptations and we called gradual change because it is super slow so our guess that through many generations and adaptation a new specie would become very different from the original specie. We have never seen a fish start walking on two legs. Time prevents this. So there are holes in all our data and evidence is always bringing up new problems and theories. As for the creation theory. No one was there in the beginning to disprove or approve it. We simply don't know how inanimate matter came to be animated. We can theorize it and can do experiment to produce such things in a test tube, but if you think, there was a creator (scientist) for the proteins that formed in the test tube. So we don’t know what outside force in nature set the motion for living organisms to arise from simple proteins. So the door really open for both debates and even more debates. List of creationists *Fred Phelps *Sarah Palin *Ann Coulter *Andrew Schlafly *W. Mitt Romney *Venomfangx *Michele Bachmann *John McCain *Ken Ham See also *How life evolved on Earth *Biological evolution of morality *Evolutionism *Extinction References External links *RationalWiki on Evolution Videos *Evolution *Evolution - The 'Best' Counter Arguments Category:Science Category:Biology Category:Evolution Category:Things Conservatives Hate Category:Things Sarah Palin Will Never Know Category:Smart stuff for dudes and chicks who've been to college Category:Scientific Facts Category:Good